Originally Posted by mattlewis86:
“I'm as frustrated as everyone else by our usual getting ahead and then throwing it away situation which I was questioned for earlier in the thread, well it happened again, 1-0 to go 2-1 down. Mignolet has to come back in, one thing he is good at is shot stopping, he's played well when hes come in for the EFL Cup.
Karius has absolutely no confidence at the moment and it shows. As soon as Payet lined up that free kick I knew it was going in, the second goal he should have come flying off his line to at least put pressure on Antonio.
As frustrated as we all are on the flip side we would have all taken 3rd at this stage of the season with a 4 point gap to 5th and we always look like we can score going forward.
We are missing Coutinho but the real frustrating thing for me is you would think it would be Sturridge's chance to get in the team but he has somehow injured himself again, he can't be relied on when we need him which is equally frustrating.”
It's still not a case of us "collapsing" when we get put under any pressure though - yesterday we defended fine for 95% of the game but individual errors led to goals. Most teams deploy one or even two defensive midfielders whereas we don't - so we are prone to being exposed more than others. A commanding keeper would be a godsend - not sure about Hart though - he has David James moments of poor concentration especially when he's not busy. Why are there so few keepers around who are happy to come and catch the ball or be decisive?
We are just not set up as a defensive team and I don't believe we have the personnel or system to do that anyway. Our middle three push forward and add to the overall fluidity of the system so parking one just in front of the defence will disrupt things (in Klopp's view). Not sure Lucas can do that role safely these days and he's the closest to a DM that we've got.
At the end of the day, we're averaging two points a game and that makes tolerating the last week far easier. Only Chelsea have hit upon the perfect balance of defence/attack and I think Kante is hugely key to that. United look tighter than us but they are far less cavalier and rely on Zlatan for 40% of their goals - as games progress and Mourinho attempts to close down games it works against him sometimes just as our style works against us sometimes.
I'm happy with our style and would rather we bought a beast of a keeper and left everything else as is unless we can find a magician to fill Coutinho's boots. Injuries up top have struck again so an extra body there would be useful, especially with Mane off to the ACON soon.